Current-collector for electric cars.



G. MEBTENS. CURRENT OOLLEOTOR FOB ELECTRIC GARS. APPLIOATIQN FILED233.12, 190s.

923, 194. Patented June '1, 1909.

ly J. 5y. 4.

J iJ 4 26 fact, that the UNITED STATES PATEN T OFFICE.

GUSTAl MERTENS, OF BLASWITZ, NEAR DRESDEN, GERMANY.

Bpecication of Letters Patent.

Patented .Tune 1, 1909.

To cll w1wm Jt may concern:

Be it known that LGns'rav Marrana, engineer, a citizen of the GermanEmpire, and a resident of Blasewitz, near Dresden, in the Kingdom ofSaxony, Germany, have invented certain new and useful Improvements 1nCurrent Collectors for Electric Cars, of which the followinlg is aspecilcation.

My invention re ates to improvements in current collectors for electriccars, and more particularly to that class of collectors in which thecurrent collecting element consists of a substantially horizontal barconnected to the upper end of one or two arms mounted on the car. Incollectors of this class, the horizontal bar or current collectingelement must be curved in such a way as to be higher nt its central partwhere it is normally in contact with the line wire, in order to preventthe same from interfering with the cross Wires su porting the latter. Fur. therniore, the saidl bar must be as light as possible in order todecrease the pressure required for holdin the same in contact with theline wire, au its inertia. 0n account of the one of the saidrequirements the' said bar can not be mounted on the arms so as to swingabout a horizontal axis, but it must. be rigidly connected thereto. Inview o the second one of the requirements stated the cross-section ofthe bar must be as small as possible. On the other hand, the said barmust be as broad -as possible in orderto have a' large contacti surfacebearing a the line wire, an to decreasewear of the same bix;itsfrictonal engagement with the wire. or the reasons stated collectorshave" been made which are rigidl connected to the pole or poles, andwhich are a flat and broad crosssection. Now, in collectors of thisclass much dilliculty arises from the l yassume anangular 'tionrelatively tot e line wire ,if norma conditions are disturbed, as,=forinstance if the wire is at abnormally lon7 level. In such t a-case. thel 'tzollec'tor 'will contact with the line wire onlyvv atY its upperedge. Itis'there. y rilpxdlypat its .edge .byfthe ed offen `will alwaysbe directed forward.

.l the travelisofthatrforeac wire and interfering with the sup ortingconnections of the wire and particularly with the cross wires supportingthe trolley, which will cause considerable disturbances in the operationof the system.

Now, the object of my im rovements is to obviate the aforesaid (lisavnntages. And for tlus purpose, the collector bar is so constructcd asto provide a large bearing surface at its front side which will comeinto operation when the bar assumes an inclined position relatively tothe line wire.

For the purpose of explaining the invenl10n, I have shown two examplesof the same in the accom anying draw' ,in which the same numeralJs ofreference ave been nsed in all the views to indicate correspondm parts.

n said draw' 1, is a. side view of a part of a system slowing thecollector bar xn cross-section, Fig. 2, is a rear view of the same, Fig.3, is a cross-section of a modified form of I :he collector bar on anenlarged scale, and 4, is a similar cross-section of 1effurthcrmodicadtlim.

erringtothe anarmlis mounted in any known way on the roof of an electriccar. The said arm comprises two sections extending upward from the roof,and connected at their u per ends by a curved bar 2 rigidly securedp tosaid arm sections and fo the collector element. The said collectorelement comprises a. flat bar 3 and a rib 4 exten downward from thefront edge of the bar, when taken in the direction of the travel of thecollector indicated by the arrow 5 of 1. The said rib may be located ata right angle or at an obtuse angle relatively to the part 3. Now

the travel of the4 car' the collector poles are abouta vertical axis atanangleof- .180 m order to move the collector tothe' Y 1002-;V

rear of the car, the rib 4 is provided onlyat one side ofthe bnr 3, thesame edge If, however, the poles are not sw ahutagvertical axis incaseof a changeffou -theldrectionof lreaction the ed" )areinterclialged;

edgeszcre provi ed wthla rib'. @Anivexaxnple the di-.L

-D-S.. where in case of a change of the' direction o downward so as tobe inoerative under normal conditions when the road collector surface ofthe part 3 bears against the line wire. If, however, the collector ispressed downward so that the rear side of its bar is inclined rearwardand downward, the sald rib approaches the line wire so as to forni awedge like contacting ace prevent the objectionable action of the edge,even 1 the ooves formed on the e extend to the ower side of thecollector ar, because the said groove extends thronrh the rib. In sucheases, the groove exten s over two parts of the collector bar which aredisposed at an angle to each other and to the line wire, whereby thecontacting surface is increased so that. the wearing out of the bar andthe formation of the groove take place less rapidly.

By arranging the relatively to the bar,

rib at an obtuse angle the contacting surface is further improv because,in case of an inclined position o the collector bar, the inclined ribwill be nearer the line wire, than in the example shown in Fig. 3, sothat the contacting ace of the groove is in y. If onl one subsidiarycontacting rib is provid a strengthening rib 6 may be provided at therear en of the har, as shown in Fig. 4. As the subsidiary ribs alsoserve to strengthen the bar, the cross-section of the latter may be sosmall, that an increase of the weight of the bar is not caused b thearrangement described as compare with flat contacting bars of usualconstruction.

I claim:

1. A current collector for electric cars comprising an arm a wide datlongitndi nelly curved collector bar rigidly secured to said arm andadapted to move in contact with the line wire and a rib extendingdownlward from the front edge of said collector 2. .current collectorfor electric cars comprlslng an arm a wide flat longitudino lly curvedcollector bar rigidly secured to said arm and adapted to move in contactwith the line wire and a rib extending downward from the iront edge ofsaid collector bar, and dis osed at an obtuse angle relatively to saihar.

In witne whereof I have hereunto set my hand in presence of twowitnesses.

GUSTAV MERTENS.

Witnesses:

Pam. Annan, CLRE SIMON.

